The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a long one-act musicalcomedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups.

The 2005 Broadway production, directed by James Lapine and produced by David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Barrington Stage Company and Second Stage Theater, earned good reviews and box-office success and was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Book. The show has spawned various other productions in the U.S., including a national tour with performances in Canada, and Australian productions.

An unusual aspect of the show is that four real audience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters. During the 2005 Tony Awards, former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton competed. Another amusing aspect of the show is that the official pronouncer, usually an improv comedian, provides ridiculous usage-in-a-sentence examples when asked to use words in a sentence. For instance, for the word "palaestra", he says, "Euripides said, 'What happens at the palaestra stays at the palaestra.'" At some shows, adult-only audiences (over age 16) are invited for "Parent-Teacher Conferences," also known as "adult night at the Bee." These performances are peppered with sexual references and profanity inspired by R-rated ad-libs made during rehearsals.

History

In 1609, a Native American people called the Wappinger inhabited the east bank of the Hudson River. They farmed, hunted, and fished throughout their range, often encountering Dutch traders, from whom they obtained goods such as alcohol and firearms.

Spelling bee

A spelling bee (also sometimes a "Spelling B") is a competition in which contestants are asked to spell a broad selection of words, usually with a varying degree of difficulty. The concept is thought to have originated in the United States, and spelling bee events, along with variants, are now also held in some other countries around the world.
The first winner of an official spelling bee was Frank Neuhauser, who won the 1st National Spelling Bee in Washington, D.C. in 1925 at age eleven.

Etymology

Historically the word bee has been used to describe a get-together where a specific action is being carried out, like a husking bee, a quilting bee, or an apple bee. Its etymology is unclear but possibly derived from the Old English word bēn, meaning prayer.

History

The earliest known evidence of the phrase spelling bee in print dates back to 1850, although an earlier name, spelling match, has been traced back to 1808. A key impetus for the contests was Noah Webster's spelling books. First published in 1786 and known colloquially as "The Blue-backed Speller," Webster's spelling books were an essential part of the curriculum of all elementary school children in the United States for five generations. Now the key reference for the contests is the Merriam-Webster unabridged dictionary.

Spelling Bee (card trick)

Cards That Know Their Names

In Cards that Know Their Names, the magician spells out the card's names one at a time, moving a card from the top of the packet to the bottom for each letter. For example, he spells "Ace", moving one card from the top of the packet to the bottom as he says "A", another as he says "c", and a third as he says "e". The next card is turned over, and it is an ace. The ace is removed from the packet and the process is repeated for "two", "three", and so on, up to "queen", until the magician is holding only one card. This last card is a king.

Method

Before starting the performance, the magician has secretly arranged the thirteen cards in the following order from top to bottom: 3-8-7-A-Q-6-4-2-J-K-10-9-5 for Ace to King. For Two to Ace it is J-4-9-2-K-8-A-5-7-3-Q-10-6

The trick is then performed as described above.

Spelling Bee

Nine cards are selected at random. The magician then allows the observer to pick up one of the piles and look at the bottom card. This is the card that is to be memorized. Then the observer places the pile on top of another pile, then that pile on top of the final pile. The magician then asks the observer to spell out out the card. They are to deal down the cards face down, each corresponding with a letter of the name of the card. First the "face value", then "of", then the "suit". Finally they are asked to spell out any five letter word and their card is then placed on top of the pile. Then the magician turns over the card and it is the original card that the observer had.

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee

The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee is a long one-act musicalcomedy conceived by Rebecca Feldman with music and lyrics by William Finn, a book by Rachel Sheinkin and additional material by Jay Reiss. The show centers on a fictional spelling bee set in a geographically ambiguous Putnam Valley Middle School. Six quirky adolescents compete in the Bee, run by three equally quirky grown-ups.

The 2005 Broadway production, directed by James Lapine and produced by David Stone, James L. Nederlander, Barbara Whitman, Patrick Catullo, Barrington Stage Company and Second Stage Theater, earned good reviews and box-office success and was nominated for six Tony Awards, winning two, including Best Book. The show has spawned various other productions in the U.S., including a national tour with performances in Canada, and Australian productions.

An unusual aspect of the show is that four real audience members are invited on stage to compete in the spelling bee alongside the six young characters. During the 2005 Tony Awards, former Presidential candidate Al Sharpton competed. Another amusing aspect of the show is that the official pronouncer, usually an improv comedian, provides ridiculous usage-in-a-sentence examples when asked to use words in a sentence. For instance, for the word "palaestra", he says, "Euripides said, 'What happens at the palaestra stays at the palaestra.'" At some shows, adult-only audiences (over age 16) are invited for "Parent-Teacher Conferences," also known as "adult night at the Bee." These performances are peppered with sexual references and profanity inspired by R-rated ad-libs made during rehearsals.

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This weekend, CHS will be performing its rendition of the Broadway musical “The 25thAnnualPutnamCountySpellingBee.” The comedic show follows the stories of six middle-schoolers competing in a spellingbee, using flashbacks to illustrate each character’s journey to the competition....

Additionally, Putnam and the school board recognized the top two finishers from the recent countyspellingbee...Putnam also recognized 18 of the county’s schools for their receipt of certificates from the North CarolinaDepartment of Public Instruction for the 2017-18 school year....